Janis Bibers
Developing software as a team effort or solo always poses the question of how to increase your work and team efficiency. Most successful software development company owners are blessed with a good, cooperative and skilled team. But most startups are not fortunate and that is one of the major reasons why many of them close shop.
But when you have a great team, how do you make sure that they are incredibly productive? Being able to boost your productivity will always allow you to stay focused and finish deliverable in a timely manner. The key to getting success within the software industry lies within the careful planning and preparation of your work day. Here are five tips for more efficient software development.
- Clear Your Work Environment
Having a healthy, positive, and distraction-free work environment is vital to be productive in the workplace. Unsubscribe from marketing emails in your work inbox, free of clutter and make sure to turn off all social media notifications when you enter the office. It might be even beneficial to block particularly tempting websites at work.
In our current era of digital media, the internet is full of distractions coming your way. These kinds of distractions can be broken up into two categories: outside sources and ourselves. Wearing headphone while you work in the office space may allow you to avoid being distracted by fellow co-workers. An uninterrupted workflow is a productive one.
I love using a plug-in called Stay focused for Google Chrome which blocks certain websites such as Facebook and only allows me access to a select few for a few hours.
- Organize Your Priorities
Your documentation improving and keeping everything updated and prioritized will greatly help your development process. If a team member needs to be alerted to the day’s highest priority tasks, having a set place for plans and documentation will keep everyone in line.
Using technology that even automates these processes may be beneficial. Being able to retain your and your team members’ productivity while simultaneously being able to monitor and report their progress will greatly increase your efficiency.
Before quitting work for the night consider even constructing a small list of high priority tasks for the next day. Just a handful pinpointing of critical action items for your following day allows you to come into work in the morning with a more focused mind. You do not need to think about what your main priorities are, you already have them.
- Plan Your Development Process
Plan out how you want to handle the task at hand, before your fingers even touch the keyboard. Before they even begin typing, many programmers spend hours in front of whiteboards. Determining writing modular code and patterns early on will help you to simplify your process and increase re usability. Planning out smaller functions that may complete one task is an easy way for programmers to make code reusable and efficient.
Taking your time to think in these abstract ways will allow you to develop patterns and transform problems into solutions you already have.
- Avoid Overworking Yourself
In tech industry, crunch time is an unavoidable part, but it is also the most taxing on one’s brain power. Fixing previous mistakes that you have due to being worked is doubling your original efforts. Being able to alternate between taking breaks and work will greatly benefit your mental health and your efficiency.
It is important to take physical breaks as well and make sure you stand up to stretch at your desk every so often. If you are looking for any help you can look at offshore outsourcing software development firm.
- Try Out Agile Development
Agile development is an alternative tool traditional or waterfall project management that focuses on being an incremental and iterative process. It is umbrella term that encompasses popular methodologies such as Scrum, Crystal, and Lean Development.
Conclusion
Forming your work environment to be a productive and efficient place will greatly benefit your overall company and product. Choosing to spend a little bit of time each day to increase your efficiency may also help to cultivate your work value and attitude towards your career. Having a team who is on task, flexible, and focused can help to create the newest, upcoming, and innovative software technology.
